Where Did Typography Come From?

Where Did Typography Come From?

We often take the thousands of fonts available to us for granted, all we have to do is pick a type on Microsoft Word and we’re all set.

Many believe that typography was created by Johannes Gutenberg, who modelled his font Blackletter on the handwriting of scribes. However, when printed Blackletter often looked squished when printed although the idea of fonts caught on as it took a lot less time than handwriting. In the 15th Century, Frenchman Nicholas Jenson created Roman Type which quickly spread throughout Europe due to the renaissance.

In the 18th Century many new styles of typography were created, including Caslon which is regarded as Old Style, Baskerville which is Traditional, and Didot and Bononi which are regarded as Modern. In fact, Caslon’s great-grandson Caslon IV created an entirely new theme of fonts named Sans Serif, having grown bored of the usual Serif.

During the 20th Century hundred of new types were created due to the advertising market, one of note being Egyptian. Following this Geometric Sans, Humanistic Sans and Helvatica were created.

Eventually, the computer arrived and although it began with crude pixel fonts we now have access to more fonts than ever before and can even create our own.